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No. 33.]
FOUR EARLY INSCRIPTIONS.
801
The first line is clear, Gomanasa ; but the second is difficult, and the whole is so brief that it offers scant means of testing the value of the fourth letter in it, the really paszling letter. It Booms to me the only olne to decipher the inscription lies in the circumstances. Gomanasa is the genitive of Gomana, that is, Gomāna, a name comparable with othor names formed from go such as Godhara and Gonanda. This disc was his gift, while the casket and the gold cylindrical box inside it were the gifts of the Satrap Kavosia. The disc was inside the gold box, and presumably both were given at the same time. It is probable that the Satrap did not himself go to Mapikiala but sent his gift by the hand of some official ; and if so, the deputy also might naturally offer a gift. Probably therefore Gomāna was the official so employed, and he presented this gift, putting it inside his master's gift which was sure of careful preservation. The second line therefore probably consists of his title.
In the secoud line the first letter seems unquestionably ka, because its left leg is the main downward line. The second can hardly be da, because da generally is not angular and has a short tail. It resembles ta and ra, yet can hardly be ta, because the stem of ta is generally short. Hence it appears to be ra. The third is plainly va.
The fourth is very puzzling. Dowson read it conjecturally as rta and Cunningham accepted his conjecture, but the character for rta is well known now and is different. It can hardly be vo. I have considered all possible combinations of consonants but find none which seems tonable, and am constrained to think it is ka. It certainly differs from the preceding ka; yet if we place in regular order (1) the oldest form of k (Bühler's Table I, cols. i-I), (2) the first k here, (3) this character, (4) the later form of k (Bühler's Table I, col. xi), and (5) the form of k found on the Wardak vase in the undoubted words Sakya (1.1), kusala and Hoveshkasya (1.2), we obtain a series showing the development of k, with two intermediate forms here : and Dr. Thomas has found on the Mathurā lion-capital a form of ko in which the k has a resemblance to this fourth letter. Forther, a closely parallel case of two differently formed K's will be found in MS. N. XV. 333;namely, k's somewhat similar to the first k here in karya khota (1.1) and karyasa panchaka (1.2), and ke's somewhat similar to this second k here in the words sighra karya (1.5), katha karya and karana twice (1.6).
The last letter is no doubt sa, though it differs from sa in the first line; and since sa is writton twice somewhat differently, so also might k be.
TEXT,
1 Gomanasa.
2 Karavakasa.
TRANSLATION
(The gift) of Gömins the Karavaka. I cannot however offer any explanation of this title karavaka, in spite of all efforts to reconstruct it in Sanskrit.
There is nothing to show whether the in this name is a dental or cerebral. There were two different characters for and, bat in inscriptions they were not always used consistently bor were they always distinguish.
thos no distinction is made between them on the Taxila Yu (Ep. Ind., VIII, 297) nor on the Wardek (Ep. Ind., XI, 20s), and it appears the characters for the two letters are interchanged in the two parts of the insoription on the Miniklals stone (JRAS., 1914, p. 640). As this is the only in this short inscription, it is impossible to say definitely whether. Or y is meant here, but is more likely than because Gomes is probable name, while Gömapa or Gomina is not. Journ. Roy. As. Soc., Vol. XX, (1868), p. 248,
Ep. Ind., Vol. XI, p. 210, plate. • Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, p. 146, Table IV.
Btela's Ancient Khotan, VOL II, plate XCII
